2006 Saab 9-5 Owner's Manual - Page 29

Safety 29 Airbag WARNING To reduce risk of injury: • Always wear your safety belt. • Always adjust your seat so that you are as far back as possible but still able to operate the pedals and reach the steering wheel and controls comfortably. • Children 12 and under or shorter than 55 inches (140 cm) should always travel in the rear seat as the car is fitted with a passenger airbag. • Never fit a child seat in front of the passenger airbag. The AIRBAG system comprises an airbag in the steering wheel, a front passenger airbag and side airbags in the front seats. The system supplements the protection provided by the safety belts to further enhance the safety of the occupants. If a fault is detected in the AIRBAG, the AIR BAG warning light on the main instrument panel will come on (see pages 61 and 37). IB419 Inflated airbag (driver side) Inflation and deflation together take less than 0.1 second. Note: The sensor reacts differently depending on whether or not the front seatbelts on the driver's and passenger sides are used. Situations can therefore arise where only one of the airbags inflates. It is also possible for only the seatbelt pretensioners to be activated and for the airbags to remain uninflated. These airbags are triggered only by moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. They will not be activated by minor front-end impacts, rear-end or side impacts, or by the car rolling over. When the system is triggered by impact of a frontal crash, the airbags in the steering wheel and passenger side of the dash board are inflated, after which they deflate through vents in the back of the bags. The entire process takes less than 0.1 second - literally, faster than the blinking of an eye. The driver and passenger airbags are referred to as 'smart' airbags. This means that the system compensates for factors such as the force of the collision.